The Invincible Miss Cust by Penny Haw

Author:Penny Haw
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2022-08-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

1900

Edinburgh, Scotland

“It is just a matter of time,” Lady Widdrington had written. She was not wrong. I, however, was wrong for hoping that Mrs. Fawcett, Mrs. Pankhurst, and other brave suffragettes would win the battle for me by the time I graduated from the New Veterinary College in 1900 and was ready to write the final RCVS examination that would allow me to officially practice as a veterinary surgeon.

How entitled I was. Having long since given up the fight myself, I had attended every lecture, demonstration, test, and examination at college in the hope that, somewhere in the world, groups of hardworking, passionate, and courageous women would do the difficult work and overturn the injustice that prevented me from becoming Aleen Cust, MRCVS.

I wanted to blame my upbringing. After all, until I arrived in Edinburgh, I had relied on servants to toil on my behalf. This was different. There was no one doing difficult things for me behind the scenes. And why should they? Why should the suffragettes have paved the way for me when I had not raised my voice with theirs, publicized my ambitions, or even had the courage to ask them to take up my cause? I deserved nothing more than what I received—a place at the back of the main hall as I watched Fred, Andrew, Toby, Piggers, and my other classmates stride to the podium, shake hands with the president of the Royal College, and receive their certificates.

When the ceremony was over, I stood outside on the lawn in the weak sun and congratulated my peers as they exited the hall. Except they were no longer my peers: they had swapped their bowlers for top hats, showing their advancement from trainees to qualified veterinary surgeons. Fred tried to rein in his smile when he saw me.

“Do not feel it necessary to be glum on my account, Mr. Taylor, MRCVS,” I said, flicking his sturdy hat.

He pulled it straight. “Of course not, Miss Cust. I would not insult you so. It is just that—”

“Say no more, Fred. What else is there to say?”

“Other than that the person among us most qualified to be a veterinary surgeon is the only one who has not received her certificate today? Indeed, what is there to say?”

I held up my hands to stop him. It was bad enough listening to the voices in my head; I did not want to hear my problems discussed out loud.

Fred was not dissuaded. “What will you do? Where will you go?”

“I shall go back to where I come from.”

“London? Leasowe Castle? Northumberland? But what—”

“No. I am going to Ireland.”

“Ireland?”

“Yes. All is not entirely lost. Professor Williams has convinced the man he describes as a ‘vanguard veterinary surgeon,’ one Mr. William Byrne of Roscommon County, to provide me with work until, well, until who knows when…or what.”

“William Byrne? Of Athleague, Roscommon? The man Andrew worked alongside in July?”

I nodded. “Yes. And what a vanguard he must be to have agreed to take me on.”

Fred frowned.

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